This month, the Gibbes Museum of Art will unveil a landmark exhibition Something Terrible May Happen: The Art of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Ned I.R. Jennings that will be on display from October 20, 2023 – March 10, 2024.
This exhibit will expand upon the lasting influence of “aesthetic fever” and the British Aestheticism Movement on the Charleston Renaissance. Focusing on the work of Charleston Renaissance artist Edward Ned I.R. Jennings (1898–1929), this exhibition will examine the stylistic affinity of his work to British Aesthete and famed illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898). Something Terrible May Happen will open new doors for exploring the LGBTQ influences on the Charleston Renaissance and one of its most original artists.
The exhibition will coincide with exciting programming that will bring the curator of drawings and paintings at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France to the Gibbes, a masquerade ball, and more. Special programming offered throughout the exhibition includes:
Curator-led Tour, October 26
The Gibbes will offer a special tour of Something Terrible May Happen led by the exhibition’s curator Chase Quinn, co-director of education and programs and curator of special projects at the Gibbes Museum of Art. This tour will examine the underpinnings of the Renaissance and the influence of queer culture and aesthetics more broadly. For more information, click here.
Queering the Charleston Renaissance with Harlan Greene, November 15
Join award-winning author and historian, Harlan Greene, who has written extensively about the Charleston Renaissance and Charleston’s LGBTQ history, for a special talk illuminating the people, places and artists that shaped the Renaissance and the visual arts in Charleston in the 20th and 21st centuries with a special focus on the contributions and presence of Charleston’s LGBTQ community members of the time. For more information, click here.
In a Grotesque Way – The Art of Aubrey Beardsley, December 16
Featured in the exhibition Something Terrible May Happen, Aubrey Beardsley depicts the grotesque, the decadent and the erotic at the turn of the century, defining the British Aestheticism movement and disturbing the social mores of the Victorian Era. Join Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, curator of drawings and paintings at the Musée d’Orsay, in conversation with Something Terrible May Happen curator Chase Quinn. They will explore what inspired the artist and defined his images of the Fin de siècle. For more information, click here.
For more information about Something Terrible May Happen: The Art of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Ned I.R. Jennings, visit www.gibbesmuseum.org. For images, click here.
-Submitted by the Gibbes Museum